State leaders discuss workforce development
ROY HOWARD COMMUNITY JOURNALISM CENTER-Mississippi leaders say thousands of skilled workers will be needed in the coming years. Governor Tate Reeves wants the state to take more control over how they’re trained.
In his fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, Reeves is calling for the Office of Apprenticeship to become a state-run agency, shifting oversight away from the federal government.
Morgan Gill with the Roy Howard Community Journalism Center has more.
For years, Mississippi’s apprenticeship programs have operated under federal oversight.
Now, state leaders say they’re ready to take the lead.
Tanya Neely, director of the Office of Apprenticeship at the Mississippi Department of Employment Security, says the state has been preparing for this shift for a long time. “We’ve been talking about this for several years. We’re just at a position now where we have the experience, the knowledge, the relationship that we want to go ahead and make that transition.”
Apprenticeships allow workers to earn a paycheck while learning on the job, combining hands-on training with classroom instruction through community colleges and other partners.
Bill Ashley, the executive director of MDES says that model is key as Mississippi attracts major industries that depend on skilled labor. “We have a lot of economic development projects that are in industries that are conducive to using a lot of skill labor.”
For workers like Rick Turner, learning on the job made all the difference.
Turner says his first job after high school trained him while he worked — and he’s been sold on that model ever since. “On the job training is the best. If I were entering a labor market, that’s what I would look for always be some place that would train me rather than looking for a training site.”
He says paid training gives people a real chance to move forward without stepping away from a paycheck. “There’s a lot of opportunity for people who want to get ahead.”
The governor’s proposal also includes $1.4 million to expand workforce training through new Accelerate Mississippi Talent Solutions Centers, as the state prepares to train an estimated 19,000 workers over the next decade.
